Monday, June 29, 2009

This is the cold open for the next Monster Cops Episode titled MONSTERS Vs. COPS. It's about 5 minutes and is a rough cut, missing some shots, also parts of it will be reshot. The complete episode will be about 20 minutes long.

It does get frustrating when you can see the final result so clearly. I know exactly how to make this movie, how it should sound, look, feel, and how to make you love it. I'm just so anxious to get there. But there are steps that need to be taken, and you can't miss one.

The Script.
Working on a 3rd draft. I have a better understanding of all the plot points and I hope to have a final draft that I'm satisfied with in July.

The Budget.
I have a preliminary budget breakdown. I actually have two. One for 125,000 dollars, and another for 60,000 dollars. This won't be finalized until the script is finalized. This is just an estimation to see how low I can go with a budget and still be able to make something high concept. I did 2 different estimations the 125,000 is what we will aim for, and is a number that will give us plenty of room to maneuver. the 60,000 is the bare minimum, it's the bare essentials to get the movie made, marketed and distributed. Hopefully we can achieve somewhere in between.

The Funding.
This cannot be achieved without the Budget and the Script. But like I said, I hope to have the Script (and therefore the Budget) finalized in July. Then we put together a proposal, a website, some concept art, the cast, and anything else that will help exhibit what this movie is about, and then we can approach people and sponsors for money. I really have no doubts in raising money. It's about being able to show what the movie is about, show that it is something that is worth investing in, and show how the money will be made back. That's what the following is for ...

The Package.
The Package (AKA The Proposal) Is everything we just named above. Everything that can be achieved to display the true passion about this story. To show that this will be a great movie, made by great and talented people, and show how it can and will make money. Once you've got as solid of a package as you can, you can start approaching investors. Which is really all just about numbers.

The Numbers Game.
That's exactly what it is, a numbers game. Approaching as many people as possible about trying to get your movie funded. Now the lower our Budget the less money we have to raise, and the easier it will be to get money back to the investor. And the more investors we approach the more the odds are someone will say yes to writing us a check. I figure you may get 1 out of every 10 people to look at your Proposal. Which means you'll need to approach 100 people just to get 10 interested. Out of that 10 you'll probably only get 4 who will actually write you a check. If we can get those 4 to write us a check for 15,000 each, then we'll have our 60,000, and we're off to the races.

In the end it's about presistence of vision. It is what keeps the movie rolling. And it is what will get our movie rolling. If we don't get the money to make this movie, it will be noone elses fault but my own.

So, off I go to work on the script some more, and then to look at the budget and see what we can cut down, or possibly get for free. If we can find a large indoor location, with power and air that we can use as a makeshift studio, and build a whole set on, that would save us a ton of money. So if anybody in the Winston, Triad, area of NC knows of anything, please let me know.